Openserve’s 1Gbps home fibre product costs around double the price of 1Gbps packages from competing fibre network operators (FNOs).
1Gbps fibre has been available to residential Internet users since Vumatel’s landmark Parkhurst project in 2014.
A 1Gbps connection enables users to download files at up to 125 megabytes per second (MB/s).
While the sheer speeds might be overkill for many households, the bandwidth can be split across many different devices and applications simultaneously, ensuring no buffering or slowdowns for multiple users.
With homes becoming more congested with Internet-connected devices and applications like video streaming and gaming being data demand, 1Gbps may have become increasingly appropriate for more users.
The prices of 1Gbps connections have decreased substantially over the past decade.
In 2015, an uncapped FTTH package on Vumatel’s network cost R4,699 from Internet service provider (ISP) XDSL Uncapped.
Major ISP Afrihost now sells a 1Gbps Vumatel product for R1,479, 69% less.
The most affordable 1Gbps product in 2025 is Cybersmart’s package, which is priced at R799 through Afirhost.
In addition to becoming more affordable, the value offered by 1Gbps products trumps other packages when considering the effective cost per Mbps of speed.
While 1Gbps is the top speed available from almost all of the country’s top 10 biggest FNOs, the second biggest operator — Openserve — has stubbornly stuck to 500Mbps as its fastest FTTH offering.
However, the company does offer 1Gbps speeds on a more expensive premium product called fibre-to-the-room (FTTR).
Developed by Huawei, FTTR ditches all the copper cabling and conventional Wi-Fi range extenders in expansive local home or business networks.
Instead, it uses optic fibre cabling that connect multiple edge optical network terminals (ONTs) across the property to ensure the best possible connectivity experience.
Unfortunately, Openserve’s FTTR is much more pricey than 1Gbps FTTH. From Telkom’s own ISP business, the product costs R2,899 per month.
A more cost-effective solution for those wanting the best possible connectivity across an entire home is a mesh network with copper cabling running from the main router connected to the ONT.
Openserve previously said there was a gap in the market for FNOs to provide a very high-end broadband product with an integrated premium Wi-Fi solution.
“Current offerings of basic Wi-Fi extenders or more advanced Wi-Fi Mesh solutions are subject to limitations inherent in Wi-Fi technology, and do not cater to this very high-end market,” the company said.
However, it is debatable whether the additional cost and reduced flexibility of the FTTR product is worth the marginal performance gains.
While MyBroadband’s own experience with the FTTR system at MWC 2022 left us impressed, similar performance could be achieved if a user connected multiple fast routers in the house with the latest copper cables.
Over short distances, the difference in latency and losses compared to optic fibre would be completely negligible.
There are also many high-performance mesh Wi-Fi access points that can easily tap into the copious bandwidth supported by 1Gbps FTTH, especially when they are connected to the primary router via a fixed connection.
For example, the T-Link Deco AC1200 E4 routers sold by Afrihost each support up to 1,167Mbps speeds.
It is also curious that Telkom continues to keep 1Gbps out of reach for its Openserve FTTH customers when considering they are often the biggest fibre data consumers in the country.
The table below compares the pricing of Openserve’s 1Gbps FTTR with all the 1Gbps FTTH packages available from Afrihost.
| FNO/ISP | Download speed | Upload speed | Included components | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cybersmart/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R799 |
| Zoom Fibre/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 500Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,277 |
| Metrofibre/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 500Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,297 |
| Mitsol/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | |||
| Frogfoot/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 500Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,467 |
| Vumatel/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 250Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,497 |
| Openfibre/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 500Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,497 |
| Vumatel/Telkom | 1,000Mbps | 250Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,449 (×12) |
| Octotel/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 200Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,547 |
| Mitsol/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,547 |
| Frogfoot/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,567 |
| Waterfall Access Networks/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,747 |
| Unifybr/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 200Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R1,857 |
| TT Connect/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 1,000Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R2,247 |
| Vumatel/Afrihost | 1,000Mbps | 500Mbps | One ONT Free-to-use TP-Link EX511 Wi-Fi 6 router | R2,347 |
| Openserve/Telkom | 1,000Mbps | 500Mbps | Up to four edge ONTs Optic fibre cabling | R2,899 (×24) |
